Community-Based Learning Day to Announce New Program Name Today

On Tuesday, May 27, the annual Community-Based Learning (CBL) Day will be held on campus to not only celebrate CBL achievements during the past year, but also mark CBL’s change of name to the Academic Community Engagement program. Open to the AUC community, the event will be held in Moataz Al Alfi Hall from 12:00 to 1:30 pm at AUC New Cairo.

“CBL Day is held annually to honor the partnerships between nongovernmental organizations and our CBL courses,” explained Pandeli Glavanis, director of the Academic Community Engagement program. “However, this year’s CBL Day is special because we will be announcing the change of name of the CBL program to the Academic Community Engagement (ACE) program. This new program will be responsible for CBL, in addition to community engagement activities that involve student organizations, student affairs and cocurricular activities.”

The CBL program was established in 2008 to provide support to faculty members who wanted to engage students in local service activities to help enhance their learning. Faculty members would incorporate volunteering activities in their course curricula, allowing students to understand concepts like development work byvolunteering at local orphanages or learning how to make convincing arguments for a rhetoric course byvolunteering at Abbassia Hospital and producing videos about epilepsy awareness.

The program will now be incorporated in the broader ACE program. “CBL is now part of a bigger umbrella for activities related to student community engagement within AUC and outside of AUC,” Glavanis said. “The ACE program will enhance students’ roles as active citizens in the community by focusing on student activities not only within the academic curriculum, but outside of it as well.”

The day will also feature speeches by Lisa Anderson, AUC president; Amr Shaarawi, AUC provost; Barbara Ibrahim, director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement; and Robert Switzer, dean of undergraduate studies. A video highlighting CBL achievements will be screened, and an award will be presented for the best faculty-nongovernmental organization partnership.

“CBL is a relatively new program, and it’s committed to encouraging students to become involved in the community,” Glavanis noted. “This annual event is held to appreciate this project, disseminate the concept to the wider AUC community, and celebrate the activities held throughout the year.”